Free business school hopes to create more jobs in Rochdale 

Katie Coombes (trainer) and a class of students at The PopUp Business School

A free business school that comes to Rochdale from the 29th of October to the 2nd of November is hoping to provide a jobs boost to the town by inspiring Rochdale residents to start their own businesses. 

The PopUp Business School, which is being delivered across the UK, helps potential entrepreneurs, small businesses and start-ups take their businesses towards their first sale.

The training schedule includes a mix of practical sessions, one-to-one coaching, workshop sessions and peer support. Workshops topics include starting a business without investment, sales and marketing, building a free website and finding customers. 

Alan Donegan, Co-Founder of the PopUp Business School said: "We are very excited about coming to Rochdale, the North of England has historically been an industrial powerhouse and we hope to ignite some of that engrained innovation to create a much needed jobs boost in the town".

The PopUp Business School is available free of charge to participants through sponsorship and funding from Rochdale Council, Rochdale Housing Initiative, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, Onward Homes, Regenda and Great Places. 

Whilst the event is being marketed to those living in Rochdale and Oldham anyone is entitled to attend. You can book a free place at the PopUp Business School here:

• www.popupbusinessschool.co.uk/rochdale

About PopUp Business School 

In 2011 Alan Donegan, an experienced corporate trainer wanted to start a business went to Business Link for advice who put him off starting a business. They told him to write a business plan, do some financial projections and take a loan. Alan was instantly turned off by this advice. The more people he spoke to the more he realised he wasn't the only one turned off by the "traditional" way of starting a business. After sending a complaint letter to Business Link, Alan met Simon Paine a Business Link advisor who'd also grown disgruntled with the traditional ways and over coffee the two of them came up with the idea of the PopUp Business School. Founded on the basic principle, to teach the opposite of what Business Link, Schools, Banks and Universities teach. Since 2012 Alan and Simon have helped inspire over 4,000 people and have popped up in 6 countries worldwide and helped start 365 businesses in 2017 alone. 

Their mission remains the same, make business education available to everyone on the planet and dispel the myth that it takes loans, plans and lots of money to do so.